Android builds with new unexpected codenames pop up - ACU56E

An Android code branch shows surprising and unexpected new build strings like and ACU50C and ACU56E. The idea133-weekly-release, which is mainly intended for developers that want to use Android with Java 7, previously showed the regular build numbers from the Kitkat branch, like KOT34B.

android-kot

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Builds of the Kitkat successor, for which the name is still unknown, were expected to start with an 'L' as per Google's build number naming convention which has existed since the Froyo builds.

According to the convention the first letter is the codename of the release family (e.g. 'K' for Kitkat) The second letter is a branch code that allows Google to identify the exact code branch that the build was made from, and 'R' is by convention the primary release branch. The next letter and two digits are a date code. The letter counts quarters, with 'A' being Q1 2009. Therefore, 'F' is Q2 2010. The two digits count days within the quarter, so F85 is June 24th, 2010. Finally, the last letter identifies individual versions related to the same date code, sequentially starting with 'A'; 'A' is actually implicit and usually omitted for brevity.

android-auc

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If we take the build string ACU56E, the codename would unexpectedly be starting with a letter 'A', the second letter is a 'C', although Google has used many different letters in that position. The 'U' and the numbers next to it should identify the quarter, and as expected 'U' is Q1 2014. The 56 means the 56th day of Q1 2014 which makes it the 25th of February 2014 and the last letter 'E' is the fifth build of that day. This means that the build string is logical, except for the initial 'A'.

The 'A' has never been used in the sequence of letters as Google initially started with Cupcake, and a letter 'C'. We have no clue as to what these new build strings indicate, so we'd love to hear what you think or if anyone has any information on this...

Update: Some users report that this might be part of Project Ara, we're currently checking.

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Update2: We could not find any code that points to Project Ara. A lot of code does point to usage of a 2nd architecture.

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